How to really confuse your party guests.

The way this all got started was that metamouse and i were sitting around at dinner chatting about what to do for the upcoming room-to-room party. We went through a whole bunch of ideas for room themes. And then — you know how, sometimes when you're bored, you look up and imagine what it would be like if gravity turned upside down and you got to walk around on the ceiling? (Does everyone have this daydream?) Anyway, we both mentioned it at the same time, and then it dawned on us that we could make it happen. Or a variant, anyway. I think sideways actually works better than upside-down, because then you can integrate real people into the scene in strange ways.

Here's a nice shot of the ceiling. (Note the sock hanging off the table — a stroke of genius due to my co-conspirator, metamouse.)

Some photos of various people enjoying the room:

How to Defy Gravity in Ten Easy Steps

Step 1. Get an empty room. (This party happened at a fortuitous time: i was just about to move into a new single, and the previous occupant had moved out, leaving me with a completely empty room to work with. And in the co-ops, you can do whatever you want to your room. I love living in a co-op!)

Step 2. Paint the entire room white — including the floor.

Step 3. Paint a window on the floor, just for fun. Then let the paint dry overnight. (I used electrical tape to make the window frame and bars.)

Step 4. Bring in a couch, nail up a rug on the wall, and hang a table over it (we used monofilament thread from the hardware store).

Step 5. Add a poster and a light switch on the ceiling for effect. (We also threw in a fake power outlet mounted sideways on the far wall, which you can see in the first picture up top. The other outlet in that picture, which looks much too high to reach, damages the effect — i should have painted it white.)

Step 6. Reinstall the curtain rod and tack up the drapes to make them hang sideways. Stick some stuff to the table in a suggestive manner.

Step 7. Nail a trash bin high up in a corner of the room, and arrange some trash around it. "Lean" a broom against the ceiling (again using monofilament thread).

Step 8. Add a bookshelf and fill it with books. Also add an end table and hang a lamp on it.

Step 9. Suspend a ceiling lamp and its cord so it "hangs" sideways out of the opposite wall into the middle of the room. (Unfortunately, we don't have a good picture of this.)

Step 10. And the coup de grâce — affix a chair high on the wall (using metal L-brackets). This one change suddenly added a whole new level of vertigo. Standing in the room began to feel like floating overhead.

Step 11. Cackle evilly. Or giggle uncontrollably. Or both.

The whole thing took two days (one day for painting, one day for arranging everything else). Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. This project really made me want to do crazy art installations for a living.